TVShowsonDVD is reporting that it has been leaked on CBS Home Entertainment's Facebook that "The Lucy Show - Season 5" will be released on Dec. 6, 2011.

This is the season that is almost in its entirety in public domain. I believe 21 of its 22 episodes have been available, in prints of varying quality, on cheap DVDs for many years now. It will be good to see them in the best prints possible, at long last.

Another problem with this season is that it had 22 episodes, instead of the normal 24 for the remaining seven years of Lucy's "Lucy Show-Here's Lucy" era. I believe this is because on October 24, 1966, in the regular time slot, Lucy appeared in an hour special, "Lucy in London."

I always felt this should be considered part of the regular series, in that the preceding episode (Oct. 17, 1966) was "Lucy Goes to London," clearly leading up to the hour show. I think the plan was to release it in two half hour parts for syndication, bringing the total number of episodes for the 1966-67 season to the regular 24. This never happened, maybe because of music rights clearances.

I think it would be a major error for CBS not to include "Lucy in London" as part of the Season 5 DVD release. However, there are indications that it won't -- or that it might release it separately at a later date.

Anyway, if Season 5 does indeed come out in December, this series should be complete in 2012, something I had doubts would ever happen.

It seems that the "rumor" I heard last week is coming true. Nevertheless, I am very excited that we have another season of this fantastic series coming out on DVD. I suspect that the final season will be out by Spring or even by Summer of next year.

I think it would be a major error for CBS not to include "Lucy in London" as part of the Season 5 DVD release. However, there are indications that it won't -- or that it might release it separately at a later date.

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Joe, what indications have you seen that it's not going to be included. I was hopeful that it was going to be, even if as a bonus feature.

I was going by a discussion on The Lucy Lounge (www.lucylounge.com). Admittedly, it might not be a good source, but someone there claims he knows that CBS has no intention of releasing "Lucy in London"-- and he said his information is "very solid." Someone else wondered if it was due to music clearance costs.

An hour Lucy special from 1964 was included with Season 2 -- so it's clear CBS is open to the idea of including hour specials with Season DVDs. And since a regular episode in Season 5 leads directly into the special, it would be kind of dumb not to include it. Of course, it's easy for me to say ... I don't know the costs associated with it.

At this point, I wouldn't be bothered if Lucy in London winds up not being included in the season five set. It is just the icing on the cake if it gets included. What I really want the most are the twenty-two episodes themselves restored in pristine condition and in unedited form.

12. "Lucy and the Monkey" sometimes referred to as "Mooney the Monkey" (#122)

Guest star: Hal March

13. "Lucy and the Efficiency Expert" sometimes referred to as "Lucy and Phil Silvers" (#123)

Guest star: Phil Silvers

14. "Lucy's Substitute Secretary" (#124)

Guest star: Ruta Lee

15. "Viv Visits Lucy" (#125)

Guest star: Vivian Vance

16. "Lucy, the Babysitter" (#126)

17. "Main Street, U.S.A." (#127)

Guest star: Mel Torme

18. "Lucy Puts Main Street on the Map" (#128)

Guest star: Mel Torme

19. "Lucy Meets the Law" (#129)

Guest star: Claude Akins

20. "Lucy, the Fight Manager" (#130)

Guest star: Don Rickles

21. "Lucy Meets Sheldon Leonard" (#131)

Guest star: Sheldon Leonard

22. "Lucy and Tennessee Ernie Ford" (#132)

Guest star: Tennessee Ernie Ford

Fifth Season Fun Facts:

- The Lucy Show ranked as the fourth most-watched program in the 1966-1967 season beating out other popular programs of the time such as Batman, Bewitched, Get Smart, The Beverly Hillbillies, Green Acres, Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C., The Lawerence Welk Show, The Ed Sullivan Show, The Dean Martin Show, Family Affair, The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, Hogan's Heroes, Gunsmoke, Daktari, The Jackie Gleason Show, Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color, ect.

- In comparison with the show's other seasons, this one was the third highest-ranked of the show as it ranked higher than the show's first three seasons only to be topped by the fourth and sixth seasons.

- This is the shortest season of a Lucy television program ever. This one only had twenty-two episodes.

- Vivian Vance, once a regular on this series, makes her first guest star appearance on the show this season. She will appear two more times next season as a guest star.

- Roy Roberts becomes a semi-regular this season as Harrison Cheever, the Westland Bank President and Mr. Mooney's boss. - Lucy Carmichael makes reference to her son in Lucy Gets Caught in a Draft. Be sure to listen closely to the reference.

- Lucille Ball, the star of The Lucy Show, won an Emmy award this season in the category of a Best Lead Actress in a Comedy Series. She beat out Elizabeth Montegomery and Agnes Moorehead (both from the highly-popular Bewitched) and Marlo Thomas (from That Girl).

- This season marks the first time for actress Carol Burnett to appear on a Lucy program. In real life, Lucille Ball and Carol Burnett were very good friends and Ms. Ball served as a mentor for this comedy legend. After this season, Ms. Burnett would go on to make two more appearances on The Lucy Show and three on Ball's fourth television series, Here's Lucy. As fate would have it, Carol suffered a major loss on her fifty-sixth birthday as Lucy passed away on that day.

- This season had its own opening that contained a jack-in-a-box with Lucy's head popping out. It was only a matter of time when this opening was dropped as Lucy hated it. Here's the opening on YouTube: .

- The returning guest stars on a Lucy TV program for this season are: John Wayne, Hal March, Mel Torme, Claude Akins, Sheldon Leonard, and Tennessee Ernie Ford.

Though I will buy all the remaining seasons, there are only a few episodes here that I would truly call good ones: Viv Visits Lucy, Main Street USA, the Carol Burnett ones and Efficiency Expert w/Phil Silvers. Maybe once I see these again, I will change my opinion. It's been over 15 years since I watched them on [email protected]. Still glad CBS is pumping them out.

Lucy's 100 Birthday in August. I see Jamestown will have a celebration. Here in Chicago we have the METV network of local stations which airs I Love Lucy. I remember her birthday being celebrated with back to back I Love Lucy on WGN back in say the early 80's. I suppose the same thing will happen all over the country. I know that good friend Jack Cleveland from the Petyon Place thread is a big Lucy Fan. Jack if you read this will you be going to the Lucy Fest in Jamestown??